The Illegals by Shaun Walker review – Russian spies hiding in plain sight | History books

The Illegals by Shaun Walker review – Russian spies hiding in plain sight | History books

One muggy afternoon in June 2010, Don Heathfield and his wife, Ann, were relaxing over a bottle of champagne with their two sons, Tim and Alex, when they heard a loud knocking... Read more »
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Crime fiction

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Crime fiction

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty (Picador, £16.99)Award-winning short-story writer Hegarty’s debut opens with guests arriving at an Irish Airbnb country house for a murder mystery-themed birthday party. Abigail has organised the celebration... Read more »
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Crime fiction

Chopping Onions on My Heart by Samantha Ellis review – can you save a culture? | Autobiography and memoir

Samantha Ellis yearns to eat the nabug fruit that her Iraqi-Jewish parents recall from Baghdad back gardens. Yet when she asks for it in London’s Iraqi shops, she’s met only with blank... Read more »
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Crime fiction

The Next Day by Melinda French Gates review – Melinda on life, before and after Bill | Books

Melinda French Gates is a woman who seemingly leaves little to chance. From girlhood she would write down goals for herself to reach, and she was just as driven at college and in... Read more »
Allies at War by Tim Bouverie review – a revelatory study of second world war alliances | History books

Allies at War by Tim Bouverie review – a revelatory study of second world war alliances | History books

Can anything new be said about the second world war? Unexpectedly the answer is yes. Here are just a few of the surprising facts that I learned from this revelatory book. The... Read more »
Children of Radium by Joe Dunthorne review – complicity, courage and cowardice examined in a slippery marvel | History books

Children of Radium by Joe Dunthorne review – complicity, courage and cowardice examined in a slippery marvel | History books

Joe Dunthorne tells us he originally envisaged this book as a story of his grandmother’s childhood escape from the Nazis; the reality turned out to be more complex. Narrated with the twists... Read more »
Allies at War by Tim Bouverie review – a revelatory study of second world war alliances | History books

What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea by Fara Dabhoiwala review – a flawed polemic | History books

The top blurb on Fara Dabhoiwala’s new book describes it as a “remarkable global history of free speech”. But it isn’t, and throwing in an interesting chapter on the press in British-occupied... Read more »
There’s No Time Like the Present by Paul B Rainey review – a funny, unpredictable and wild comic | Books

There’s No Time Like the Present by Paul B Rainey review – a funny, unpredictable and wild comic | Books

People who enjoy science fiction love to imagine the future: time travel, spaceships, something wobbly with a green face. But what if those fans really had access to it – the future,... Read more »
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